Despite his absence, Joshua Cheptegei was the biggest beneficiary after Abdallah Mande qualified for the World Junior championships 10000m event at the 6th national trials that were held Saturday at Namboole.

The world event is due next month in Oregon, USA.

Cheptegei, who is Uganda’s best medal bet at the biennial games, was looking for a partner and Mande’s hitting the qualifying mark after running 28 minutes 42.1 seconds gave him hope in the race, where he will be facing runners from Kenya and Ethiopia.

The time was inside the qualifying mark of 31 minutes 29.30 seconds.

After seeing that his fellow competitors were not giving him enough speed, Mande, who had already qualified for the 5000m broke away from them at the half way mark and never looked behind as he won by over half a minute.

The other challenger, Dominic Korir from KCCA clocked 29:09.4.

Mande and Philip Kipyeko had all qualified for 5000m, but with Kipyeko’s best event coming towards the end of the championships, the federation felt that they needed a running partner from Cheptegei.

Mande’s qualification means that they have got that that required partner.

After, the technical team will decide on who of the two will be joining Kipyeko in the 5000m.

Stella Chesang is the other athlete set to travel with the team that will be managed by Nalis Bigingo.

In the sprints, Uganda Wildlife Association’s Halimah Nakaayi came home at 55.6 second in the 400m as she prepared for the relay team at the Commonwealth Games.

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